Chapter 19: Vanguard

-Alexander POV-

It had been three days since I started and finally the last of the buildings rose upwards, finally settling with an almost anticlimactic thunk.

This would be the third time I had ‘finished’ the city.

The problem with me is that I didn’t tend to plan things out ahead of time, I liked to rush head first into things and figure it out as I go. I was spontaneous and creative, but not much of a thinker.

Hence I would often finish construction only to redo aspects of my work.

To my slight shame most of the corrections I had to do were things most would think to be common sense.

Yes, apparently I needed to think twice about putting waste disposal and treatment next to residential areas.

Yes, I did need to alter the barrier surrounding the city when I noticed it was affecting sunlight.

If you ever wanted to realise your own idiocy then go into city planning, there are so many obvious issues that you were bound to screw one up eventually.

I looked across the endless vistas of my new creation. The chrome skyscrapers were everywhere, gleaming silver and gold monuments to what I had created. Crisscrossing each of the buildings were crystals of immense scale and breathtaking beauty, glowing a faint yellow hue. I knew they would look even better at night, in truth they were a type of nanocrystal designed to absorb and release sunlight, not unlike the glow in the dark stickers I used to love littering my room with.

Greenery was much more subdued in this area of the city, with only trees lining the streets. I had wanted to add more, but when I considered that most of the city’s population came from rural prison camps I decided against it. If they wanted to see more plant life they could always head to the area dedicated to farming.

Most of the skyscrapers were empty at the moment, the people of this city would eventually decide what to use them for. Perhaps they would become offices or centres of governance?

Don’t know, don’t really care.

I made my way towards the residential area, my feet thudding against the wide tarmac road, the nanoparticles within easily bearing my weight and reducing the sound I made to a whisper of what it would have otherwise been.

The residential area had been tricky to make, not because of a lack of ideas though. Frankly I had far too many ideas I wanted to try out.

I vaguely remember a crowd having gathered around me at one point while I was creating, and subsequently ripping apart, a model home. The ideas they had of me were rather cute in a way. From what I gathered they thought of me as a perfectionist, some benevolent figure that was unsatisfied until every home I made for them was completely perfect.

Sorry my guys, I was just wondering on whether I should add heated toilet seats and other unimportant stuff most of the time.

They had continued to follow me during the day, only slinking off when it came time to sleep. I had let them for the first few days, but after spotting the bloody soles of one of the men I had shooed them off, telling Renji to actually get them proper shoes.

Which, again, I had forgotten to give them.

Frankly I was at no risk of developing a god complex, I was too self-aware of my own incompetence for that.

Where was I?

Ah! The houses!

Eventually I settled on the sort of modern houses you tended to see with upper middle class families and higher. Contemporary architecture with an eye towards minimalism and composed volumes, overhangs and rectilinear forms. There was one key difference between those houses and these however.

The houses I took inspiration from back home tended to be very monochromatic, very austere and professional. It was clean and definitely had a beauty to it, but it was a cold and clinical beauty. After seeing the drab clothing and environment the former prisoners were used to, I decided to add a lot of colour to make things pop.

It was a veritable rainbow of houses. Reds, greens, blues and more dotted the houses. I hadn’t added anything too garish, like bright pink or orange, but this was definitely an area which demanded attention.

I hadn’t heard any complaints from the crowd of people who used to follow me, so I took that as tacit approval and continued my one man war against being boring.

Each of the homes had the sort of amenities you might expect from a house like this. Heating, plumbing, electricity, internet, the whole nine yards.

It was this advanced nature that had caused me to uproot and redo my city for the second time upon the realisation that something would be needed to maintain all of this.

Yes the nanotechnology could self-repair, but that had limits and I wasn’t adding nanotechnology into everything for a whole host of reasons.

So I was forced to add a Virtual Intelligence designed to maintain the city, and advise the local population. It would act as a data repository for all technology needed to properly run this city and it had access to all drones present within the city.

Which were a lot, just to be clear.

As in each house had at least one.

Along with Cai Lun, one of my twelve creations, it would be in charge of all technology until the local population was educated enough to properly take over.

I sighed, cupping my head in my many palms as I realised I had finally run out of excuses.

The city was done which meant I needed to focus on what comes next.

Setting up an actual government for the people I rescued.

Ugh, I was shuddering just thinking about it.

Frankly I would have stayed out of it entirely if not for Renji’s advice.

“My liege, these people look up to you and hang on your every word. If a government were to form without your approval then nearly everyone present would think it was without legitimacy. I apologise but if you believe you can simply do thing half way at this point then you are a fool. If you do not wish to regret whatever becomes of this city then you must commit!”

It had been a slap to the proverbial face.

The fact that it was Renji saying it only made it more shocking. As horrible as it sounded I had expected him to only give the barest of care towards the people I had rescued.

Instead he had stood up to me and basically called me an idiot to my face.

I made me wonder what had happened to cause that.

After that I had been rolling some ideas around in my head. The ideal end goal would be setting up some sort of democracy. Unfortunately while none of the refugees were fond of communist or monarchist rule they were… doubtful at best regarding democracy.

Well when you lived in a world full of Masters and Thinkers that was fair enough, though frustrating for me.

I had explained to people that parahuman powers would be unable to work within the city, but there was a difference between knowing and knowing.

There was also a cultural bias present against Western Society, communist China, and then later the C.U.I had focused heavily on demonising the West through propaganda, and despite heavily resenting both the previous and current Chinese government my city’s residents weren’t immune to propaganda creating by Thinkers.

So it was kind of a clusterfuck.

Almost everyone had suggested that I take up the mantle of leader, but I had shot that down pretty quick.

I didn’t mind popping in to help every now and again, but the thought of permanently settling down only left a pit in my stomach.

Despite these people’s wishes this wasn’t my home. I wasn’t about to pretend it was.

With that I had put forth my candidate as leader.

When I had crafted my twelve paragons I had designed each for a specific purpose.

Sanzang was created to fulfil peoples spiritual and religious needs. He had been crafted with an inherent understanding of people that surpassed my own many times over. He could heal mental agonies that an army of psychologists could not.

Cai Lun was crafted in the image of one of China’s most famous inventors. I had spared no resource in designing a mind many times more brilliant than the average person. On top of all of that he boasted the complete knowledge of everything I currently knew regarding technology. On his own he could singlehandedly propel any country into a golden age of technological improvement.

Those were just two of the paragons, they were each capable of shifting the balance of entire continents. Unlike Sun Wukong, whose loyalty could not be compelled due to his legend, each of my paragons had been made loyal to myself and my wishes.

So I had decided to place one of them in the position of leader.

Taizong, created with the likeness of the second emperor of the Tang dynasty, was designed to govern.

Initially I had wanted him to serve as an advisor to whatever leader emerged from the disparate prison groups , but that plan had gone up in smoke.

Taizong was uniquely suited to the role. Much like Cai Lun he was brilliant to an almost comical degree, but in a different direction. While Cai Lun could design vast improvements to technologies in only a month or two Taizong could make the world economy his bitch in roughly the same time.

The man had an understanding of politics, economy, and governance that could be considered preternatural. The magic infusing him bound him closely to one of China’s most successful emperors and as a result he was instinctively drawn towards actions that would ensure prosperity.

To absolutely nobodies surprise the people had accepted the charismatic man after only a few speeches.

Thus, the plan of democracy in this city died before it had even begun as an immortal benevolent super leader took charge.

The idea that I had essentially outcompeted democracy left me oddly sanguine.

Democracy was the best choice of government in a lot of shit choices. Not because it was necessarily efficient or good at preventing bad actors from rising to the top. No, scum always rose to the top regardless of whatever form of governance you chose. With democracies you could at least limit the amount of damage they caused and hold them accountable.

But now I had created the perfect platonic concept of a leader in human form. I would genuinely be surprised if Taizong could even fathom the idea of willingly hurting the people under his rule. He also wouldn’t be making any mistakes, not when it came to ruling a nation this small.

Still, the idea that it was a good thing to prop up a supreme leader clashed heavily with my upbringing.

I had been ignoring the entire situation through building, and occasionally tearing down and redoing, the city of Jinzhou.

But now I would have to go back and help with crafting all of the bureaucratic functions that allowed a city to properly run.

Even if the extent of my contribution would be handing Taizong a map of the now complete city and approving whatever he says for the benefit of the slightly worshipful populace.

Being an Endbringer is hard.

AN: The city is complete and now we’re getting into the functions of government. Alexander will probably be half asleep the entire time. It’s a good thing Taizong is on the ball, and will literally always be on the ball.

Renji is actually putting the advice of Sanzang to work and challenging Alexander on his avoidant tendencies. You got information on two more of the twelve creations Alexander built: An unparalleled inventor and statesmen.

Also Happy Easter! I hope you’re all doing well!

Next update might be on Friday instead of Sunday, as I’m going on vacation on Saturday and won’t be able to bring my computer. Maybe I’ll find a way around this but that’s currently my plan.